Mumbai, April 6 (AP): Indian movie icon Amitabh Bachchan said hosting Bollywood's biggest award ceremony in Britain could help boost the popularity of India's prolific movie industry.

This year's International Indian Film Awards ceremony will be held in Sheffield in northern England on June 9.

``Yorkshire is beautiful and has a very large Asian community,'' Bachchan was quoted as saying by Mumbai's DNA newspaper. ``Such events always manage to propagate the coming together of different communities.''

The annual film awards, often referred to as ``Bollywood's Oscars,'' were created seven years ago and are presented outside India to promote Indian films for an international audience. Earlier ceremonies have been held in the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, London and Singapore.

Bachchan marveled at how people who don't even speak Hindi _ the language of Bollywood _ talk to him about Indian movies when he is abroad.

``I've had non-Asians who don't even know our language coming up to me and saying they like a particular movie of mine,'' he said. ``Some don't even know my name, but know the characters I play. Such is the reach of Bollywood.''